Supplements

Commentary

By Liz Quirin

A New Member of the 'Communion of Saints'

I met Caryl Sondag in the worst of all possible circumstances — the flood of 1993 that inundated the town of Valmeyer and forced residents to move to higher ground, often in different towns to see what would happen. Caryl, a woman of great faith and determination, helped me understand how important her community and her faith were in the context of the terrible disaster.

When then Bishop Wilton Gregory was appointed to head the diocese, he made a visit in December of 1993 to the diocese, and Caryl set up some meetings with people who had been forced from their homes because of the flood.
One of those people was a relative, the late Augusta Meisenbach, then living in a trailer in Waterloo. After a short visit, the bishop said he wanted to give her something. He pulled a rosary out of his pocket, telling her it was blessed by the pope. Ms. Meisenbach said she already had one blessed by the pope. The bishop’s shock was clearly evident on his face. Then she smiled and added: “But that one’s broken, so I’ll be happy to have another.”

Not only Caryl, but everyone in the room, smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, and we went on to the next place.
In the context of the teacher — she had been a kindergarten teacher for 27 years — she taught me what community meant when St. Mary parishioners met at Immaculate Conception Church in Madonnaville with St. Mary Parish in Valmeyer new pastor, the late Fr. Edwin Hustedde, to decide what to do about their parish and their town.
She made sure I understood how close-knit the community of faith was and is, and how important it was to stay together, to rebuild St. Mary’s and to continue to live their faith through their families and their parish. I stood next to her on a Christmas Eve at a midnight Mass when the lector welcomed everyone to the new church, built on the bluffs so that no water could again destroy their place of worship. To say the event was touching hardly describes the emotions present in that church that night.

Caryl continued to teach all of us about the depth and breadth of faith as the years followed. She spent many years as the head of parish religious education, and other family members participated in the life of the parish as well. Although her health deteriorated in recent years, the light of her faith never dimmed.

When an idea or a possible story came to mind, Caryl called to see what we might do. Without fail, she knew the people and the events that would promote the faith not only of the parishioners of St. Mary’s but also serve as an example to others in the diocese. Somehow, I thought Caryl would always be in Valmeyer, someone I could call on when my own faith needed to be recharged. Along with so many others now, she is numbered among the Communion of Saints and will have to be contacted at a “higher level.”